Learning to Relax

All nervous tension has a muscular element, the control of which helps your nervous and emotional as well as your physical state. You cannot command your whole body to relax at one time, but you can easily learn to relax one or two muscle groups at once. When you have learned this simple procedure, you can quickly relieve accumulated muscle tension at almost any time. In the process you will keep both nervous and muscular tension from building up, and maintain a much more emotionally responsive state.

Lie down in a quiet, darkened room. Hold your neck muscles slightly stiff, moderately stiff, quite stiff, then as stiff as you can make them. Now move backwards along the same scale, from totally stiff to quite stiff, to moderately stiff, to slightly stiff, to normal - and then one more step in the same direction, towards looseness and relaxation beyond the original base level. Go through this routine three or four times, until you definitely 'get the feel of it' and can relax your neck muscles at will.

Now you are ready to relax other parts of your body.

Relax your right arm, your right leg, your left leg, your left arm, your scalp, your face, your neck, your back and your tummy muscles. This order - around the clock, then top to bottom - is easy to remember. Do not strive for maximum relaxation of each part: you will relax more thoroughly in a given length of time by focusing your attention on each part only long enough to loosen its musculature through a single 'relaxation command', then shifting your attention to the next body part. After three or four 'go-rounds' you will find yourself drifting into a state of highly restful calm which you can easily maintain for some time.

When you first try part-by-part relaxation, twenty-minute rest breaks in a quiet bedroom work best. After a few weeks, however, you will become good enough at relaxing muscle groups that isolation and quiet are no longer necessary. You can sit in a straight chair with both feet flat on the floor, place your hands in your lap, let your head loll forward, and relax muscle groups in rotation just as if you were in bed. Even when children are playing in the vicinity or dinner is cooking on a nearby stove, you will find that you can readily relax. After two or three 'go-rounds', lift one hand up to shoulder height and let it fall back into your lap like a limp dishrag. Do the same with the other hand. Then resume part-by-part relaxation, perhaps for two to three minutes. Such brief 'refresher slouches' will definitely help to keep tension from building up, of ten with startling effects on your disposition, level of contentment, and sexual responsiveness.

A few more weeks of practice will improve your ability to relax to the point where a set position and chair- or bed supported posture are no longer entirely necessary. Whenever you become conscious of muscular tension you will be able to relax it without interrupting your activities.

Weight Reduction, Weight Gaining, Body Fat

Weight Reduction

The obese individual may reduce his weight by limiting the amount of fat and high caloric carbohydrate foods in his diet. The protein foods need not be diminished because of their property of specific dynamic action (stimulation of general metabolic processes). An increased amount of daily physical activity increases the katabolic processes and aids in weight reduction.

Weight Gaining

The underweight individual may increase his weight by increasing the amount of fat and high caloric carbohydrate foods in his diet. More frequent feeding may be desirable, but excessive fat taken between meals may decrease the appetite due to its slow rate of digestion. Additional hours of sleep, perhaps including an afternoon nap may be helpful. A pleasant environment and a serene mental attitude are also important in a weight gaining program.

Body Fat

Various types of competitive athletics require different proportions of fat to muscle for maximum performance. A minimum amount of fat is desirable in the distance runner, the high jumper and the gymnast. These athletes must move their own weight in a highly economical fashion and any added weight taxes the strength and endurance. Distance swimmers need a certain amount of fat distributed near the skin surface to diminish the heat loss to the water, Football players, especially linemen, employ the fat portion of their mass in achieving momentum and also as a cushion to absorb the shocks of repeated contact.

In severe athletic training the normal amount of fat is reduced to a minimum because this tissue is considered an incumbrance. It is an extra load to be carried and it impedes the violent contraction of muscles, In this highly trained slate man is best fitted for framing, jumping, climbing and fighting. As stated before, however, he is not in the best condition to resist an exhausting infection like typhoid fever where an individual's fat stores are a valuable asset.

During a season of athletic training a slight loss in body weight may be expected at first due to a loss of fat. The initial loss is followed by a slow gain attributable to increased muscular development. One evidence of staleness or overtraining is a gradual loss of weight, i.e., the weight lost during exercise is not regained as it should be. Rest and feeding are indicated when the weight continues to decline.